A1 Phonetic symbols

The tables below give the phonetic symbols used in this book, which for the most
part are the symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
Some of the symbols are alternates to IPA symbols that are commonly used to transcribe English (especially in the US) and some other languages.
Where these differ from the standard IPA symbols, the IPA symbols are shown in parentheses in the tables.

Phonetic symbols are used in two ways, as described in
this paragraph,
to indicate the phonemes of a particular language and to indicate the
relatively precise nature of a given sound.
For example, in this book the symbol /e/ is used to represent one of the
vowel phonemes of English.
But, as we have seen,
this phoneme is pronounced as a diphthong by most speakers, [eɪ]
in General American.
In the table below, the symbol [e] represents a "pure" vowel sound
not found in General American (but found in accents of Scotland, Ireland,
and northern England, where the phoneme /e/ is not a diphthong).
In addition, for the sake of simplicity, we may use the same symbol to represent phonemes in different languages that differ phonetically.
So in this book, when the phonetic details don't matter, I use the symbol /r/ to represent the first sound in the English word red (phonetically, a retroflex approximant) and the first sound in the Spanish word rojo (phonetically, an alveolar trill).
Symbols that are used for a relatively wide variety of sounds in phonemic transcription in this book are marked with an asterisk(*) in the tables.

Recall also that the symbols are just a convenient way to
approximate the sounds of human languages.
Far more sounds than these are actually produced, so there is no
way to describe all of the sounds perfectly using these symbols.
I have not included all of the IPA symbols, only those for sounds
that have been discussed in the book.
Many of the feature values are also meant only as approximations.
For example, the height of both [i] and [ɪ] is given as "high", but
[ɪ] is actually slightly lower than [i], and the rounding of
both [i] and [e] is given as "spread", but [i] is actually more
spread than [e].

Vowels

Symbol

Features

Height

Backness

Roundness

Tenseness

*i

high

front

spread

tense

ü(y)

high

front

round

tense

ɪ

high

front

spread

lax

*e

high mid

front

spread

tense

ɛ

low mid

front

spread

lax

æ

low

front

spread

lax

*u

high

back

round

tense

ɯ

high

back

spread

tense

ʊ

high

back

round

lax

*o

high mid

back

round

tense

ɔ

low mid

back

round

lax

α

low

back

spread

lax

ɨ

high

center

spread

lax

ʌ

mid

center

spread

lax

ə

mid

center

spread

lax

*a

low

center

spread

lax

Consonants

Symbol

Features

POA

MOA

Voice

p

bilabial

stop

vcls

b

bilabial

stop

voiced

m

bilabial

nasal

voiced

ɸ

bilabial

fricative

voiceless

β

bilabial

fricative

voiced

w

labiovelar

approximant

voiced

f

labiodental

fricative

vcls

v

labiodental

fricative

voiced

θ

dental

fricative

vcls

ð

dental

fricative

voiced

*t

alveolar

stop

vcls

*d

alveolar

stop

voiced

n

alveolar

nasal

voiced

s

alveolar

fricative

vcls

z

alveolar

fricative

voiced

*r

alveolar

trill

voiced

ɾ

alveolar

tap

voiced

l

alveolar

lateral sonorant

voiced

ɹ

retroflex

approximant

voiced

č(ʧ)

postalveolar

affricate

vcls

ǰ(ʤ)

postalveolar

affricate

voiced

š(ʃ)

postalveolar

fricative

vcls

ž(ʒ)

postalveolar

fricative

voiced

ɲ

palatal

nasal

voiced

y(j)

palatal

approximant

voiced

k

velar

stop

vcls

ŋ

velar

nasal

voiced

g

velar

stop

voiced

x

velar

fricative

vcls

ɣ

velar

fricative

voiced

q

uvular

stop

vcls

ʔ

glottal

stop

vcls

h

glottal

fricative

vcls

These basic symbols are modified to indicate details, including
additional features that are not simply accommodated by the
feature dimensions given in the tables.
The modifications used in this book are listed in the following table.